Consumer Confidence Remains Stable As October Begins

Consumer confidence remained relatively unchanged at 53.2 points over the past two weeks, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). After declines from its 2018 peak on February 6, the ESI has mostly held steady, averaging 53.3.

Two of the ESI’s five indicators increased in the past two weeks. Consumer confidence in making a major purchase experienced the largest increase, rising 1.4 points to reach 54.3 points slightly below its highest level of 54.4 this year. Consumer confidence in personal finances also rose to 65.5 points. Meanwhile, consumer sentiment towards the labor market and the U.S. economy experienced decreases of 1.6 and 0.9 points, respectively. Consumer confidence in the housing market also fell slightly, dropping 0.3 points to 48.6.

The HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (“ESI”) is a “living” index that measures U.S. adults’ expectations for the economy going forward, as well as their feelings about current conditions for major purchases. The primary goal of the Index is to accurately measure movements in overall national economic sentiment, and to provide a more sophisticated alternative to existing economic sentiment indices. Unlike other prominent indices that release consumer sentiment estimates infrequently, the HPS-CivicScience Index is updated in real time as responses are collected continuously every hour, every day. Large-scale cross-tabulation of survey responses and consumer attributes enable more granular analyses than are currently possible through prevailing measures.

Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS) is an analytical public affairs consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. We integrate substantive analysis with communications and believe a deep understanding of business and economics leads to more effective public engagement and better outcomes for our clients.

CivicScience, Inc. provides the leading intelligent polling and real-time consumer insights platform, the InsightStore™. Its proprietary platform powers the world’s opinions and quickly gets that data to the decision makers who care. Every day, CivicScience polls ask millions of people questions related to thousands of topics, while its powerful data science and big data technology analyzes current consumer opinions, discovers trends as they start, and accurately predicts future behaviors and market outcomes. CivicScience polls run on hundreds of premier websites, in addition to its own public polling site at www.civicscience.com. CivicScience’s InsightStore™ is used by leading enterprises in marketing research, advertising, media, financial services, and political polling. For more information, visit CivicScience by clicking here and follow them on Twitter – @CivicScience.